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Well then, as we have grown accustomed to saying (but why?), “Google it … Google is your friend”.

Er … perhaps not.

In our world of digital everything, no one is your friend.

From Zero Hedge, a must read (reproduced in full, all emphasis in original … and watch carefully for the “Telstra” reference):

The rabbit hole just got deeper. A whole lot deeper.

On Sunday we predicated that “there’s one reason why the administration, James Clapper and the NSA should just keep their mouths shut as the PRISM-gate fallout escalates: with every incremental attempt to refute some previously unknown facet of the US Big Brother state, a new piece of previously unleaked information from the same intelligence organization now scrambling for damage control, emerges and exposes the brand new narrative as yet another lie, forcing even more lies, more retribution against sources, more journalist persecution and so on.”

And like a hole that just gets deeper the more you dug and exposes ever more dirt, tonight’s installment revealing one more facet of the conversion of a once great republic into a great fascist, “big brother” state, comes from Bloomberg which reports that “thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.”

The companies extend far wider than the legacy telcos, such as Verizon, that launched the entire NSA-spying scandal a week ago: “Makers of hardware and software, banks, Internet security providers, satellite telecommunications companies and many other companies also participate in the government programs. In some cases, the information gathered may be used not just to defend the nation but to help infiltrate computers of its adversaries.”

Many of these same Internet and telecommunications companies voluntarily provide U.S. intelligence organizations with additional data, such as equipment specifications, that don’t involve private communications of their customers, the four people said.

And since what goes on behind the scenes is confidential, literally anything goes: “Along with the NSA, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and branches of the U.S. military have agreements with such companies to gather data that might seem innocuous but could be highly useful in the hands of U.S. intelligence or cyber warfare units, according to the people, who have either worked for the government or are in companies that have these accords.”

Some of the back and forth is innocuous, such as Microsoft revealing ahead of time the nature of its exposed bugs (ostensibly providing the government with a back door into any system using a Microsoft OS, but since it’s don’t ask, dont’ tell, nobody really knows). However the bulk of the interaction is steeped in secrecy: “Most of the arrangements are so sensitive that only a handful of people in a company know of them, and they are sometimes brokered directly between chief executive officers and the heads of the U.S.’s major spy agencies, the people familiar with those programs said.”

More on this “company within a company”:

Typically, a key executive at a company and a small number of technical people cooperate with different agencies and sometimes multiple units within an agency, according to the four people who described the arrangements.

If necessary, a company executive, known as a “committing officer,” is given documents that guarantee immunity from civil actions resulting from the transfer of data. The companies are provided with regular updates, which may include the broad parameters of how that information is used.

Remember how they say conspiracies are impossible because too many people know about them, and the information always eventually leaks? Well not if you contain it to a handful of people in any organization, and force them to sign a bloody NDA, pledging one’s first born in the case of secrecy breach.

An example of a company that is happy to “communicate” with tht the government is Intel’s McAfee internet security unit, which in addition to everything is one giant backdoor entrance for the government. If need be of course:

Intel Corp. (INTC)’s McAfee unit, which makes Internet security software, regularly cooperates with the NSA, FBI and the CIA, for example, and is a valuable partner because of its broad view of malicious Internet traffic, including espionage operations by foreign powers, according to one of the four people, who is familiar with the arrangement.

Such a relationship would start with an approach to McAfee’s chief executive, who would then clear specific individuals to work with investigators or provide the requested data, the person said. The public would be surprised at how much help the government seeks, the person said.

McAfee firewalls collect information on hackers who use legitimate servers to do their work, and the company data can be used to pinpoint where attacks begin. The company also has knowledge of the architecture of information networks worldwide, which may be useful to spy agencies who tap into them, the person said.

Google, another participant in PRISM, already lied about its participation in the covert-op:

Following an attack on his company by Chinese hackers in 2010, Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, was provided with highly sensitive government intelligence linking the attack to a specific unit of the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, according to one of the people, who is familiar with the government’s investigation. Brin was given a temporary classified clearance to sit in on the briefing, the person said.

According to information provided by Snowden, Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, had at that point been a Prism participant for more than a year.

Google CEO Larry Page said in a blog posting June 7 that he hadn’t heard of a program called Prism until after Snowden’s disclosures and that the Mountain View, California-based company didn’t allow the U.S. government direct access to its servers or some back-door to its data centers. He said Google provides user data to governments “only in accordance with the law.”

Ah yes, the law that no mere mortal can observe in action, and which has zero popular checks and balances. So what specifically does Google provide to the government? “Highly offensive information” it appears.

That metadata includes which version of the operating system, browser and Java software are being used on millions of devices around the world, information that U.S. spy agencies could use to infiltrate those computers or phones and spy on their users.

“It’s highly offensive information,” said Glenn Chisholm, the former chief information officer for Telstra Corp (TLS)., one of Australia’s largest telecommunications companies, contrasting it to defensive information used to protect computers rather than infiltrate them.

Going back to Obama’s promise on live TV that nobody was listening in to any conversations, one wonders: why did the major telecom companies “ask for guarantees that they wouldn’t be held liable under U.S. wiretap laws.” Because if the companies demanded a waiver, they obviously were wiretapping, i.e., eavesdropping, and doing so on US citizens, or those protected by US laws. And that’s why Obama should have just kept his mouth shut, instead of having to explain what he meant and that he never said what he said.

Before they agreed to install the system on their networks, some of the five major Internet companies — AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)., Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), Level 3 Communications Inc (LVLT). and CenturyLink Inc (CTL). — asked for guarantees that they wouldn’t be held liable under U.S. wiretap laws. Those companies that asked received a letter signed by the U.S. attorney general indicating such exposure didn’t meet the legal definition of a wiretap and granting them immunity from civil lawsuits, the person said.

Ah, the US Attorney General – because what is another Obama scandal that doesn’t involve his primary henchman Eric Holder…

The last question remains: what do companies get out of this proactive betrayal of their clients? Well, in some cases, such as those of IBM and Amazon as we described yesterday, they get lucrative government (CIA) contracts for billions of dollars. But that’s just taxpayer cash. Where it gets worse is when the kickbacks are yet more secrets.

In exchange, leaders of companies are showered with attention and information by the agencies to help maintain the relationship, the person said. In other cases, companies are given quick warnings about threats that could affect their bottom line, including serious Internet attacks and who is behind them.

In other words, what is going on behind the scenes is nothing more than one vast, very selective, extremely secretive, symbiotic and perfectly “legal” giant information exchange network, which allows corporations to profit off classified government information either in kind or in cash, and which allows the government to have all the information at its disposal, collected using public and private venues, in order to protect itself, to take out those it designates as targets, or simply said – to get ever bigger.

The Government has issued an alert to airlines around the world, urging them not to allow Edward Snowden to fly to the United Kingdom.

The alert, on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should deny boarding to Snowden because “the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK.”

…

Snowden, 29, revealed himself last week as the source of top-secret documents about controversial American surveillance programs.

He said he revealed America’s snooping of citizens’ internet use for a “better world”.

“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under,” he said.

40 Responses to “If This Does Not Chill You To The Bone, You Are Already Dead”

Sorry, did not read the long article. I am aware of PRISM. It scares the crap out of me because I do not feel comfortable about having my every thought and action accessible to whoever decides to illegally use the system to follow me, for whatever reason. They will say that there are safeguards but to this I say that these will be the same safeguards which permit law enforcement organisations to plant phone taps and access whatever it wants, legal or not. There will be no (lasting) protections. Individuals will end up as fodder as they always do. And ultimately information will be sold and citizens will be fair game.

If you believe that the system will protect you then you believe what those who seek total information disclosure will not misuse their power. They will. They always do. Just look at the information which Wikileaks ended up getting. So how is information for unimportant individuals going to be any different? It won’t!!

“………NSA acts like a virtual «state within a state». The director of NSA, a four-star flag officer, also wears the hat of Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, the chief cyber-warfare echelon within the Department of Defense. Just as any nation-state, NSA also has alliances with similar signals intelligence and cyber-warfare agencies around the world, including Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia’s Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), and the Government Communications Security Board (GCSB) of New Zealand. These English-speaking partners are known as the «Five Eyes» countries and the signals intelligence alliance began after World War II and grew in scope during the Cold War…………
…………..In 1975, when Australian Labor Party Prime Minister Gough Whitlam demanded information on the activities of NSA bases in Alice Springs and Woomera, Australia, the U.S., working with Australian intelligence, prevailed upon the Australian Governor General Sir John Kerr, to depose Whitlam and appoint the conservative and pro-U.S. opposition leader as prime minister. In effect, NSA ensured that a democratically-elected government was overthrown in a bloodless and seemingly constitutional coup d’état.
NSA’s intelligence collections programs, including the PRISM meta-data vacuuming and storage and retrieval system exposed by NSA contractor whistleblower Edward Snowden, allegedly operate under U.S. government «oversight». However, the congressional oversight, the Intelligence Committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, are mere rubber stamp entities, as is the chief judicial oversight body, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The FISC, which was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in response to the surveillance abuses of the NSA, FBI, and CIA during the Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon presidencies, was tasked with ensuring that any use of NSA to conduct domestic surveillance was subject to a court order from the FISC. However, the FISC is a secret court and its decisions are classified. It has rarely denied a government request for a surveillance warrant in its entire history……….”

“The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing. We need to turn the cameras on the police and on the government, not the other way around. We should be thankful for writers like Glenn Greenwald, who broke last week’s story, for taking risks to let us know what the government is doing. There are calls for the prosecution of Greenwald and the other whistleblowers and reporters. They should be defended, as their work defends our freedom.”
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”. James Madison

“The real reason you should be worried about these revelations of government surveillance is not that you’re likely to be tracked, prosecuted, or exposed. You should be worried because it is another step in the process of making our vibrant, contentious, and most of all free-minded citizenry into a nation of sheep.”…Professor Stephen M. Walt of Harvard University[1]

Jonas E. Alexis makes an important point in the above article that some in Christian circles don’t seem to be able to grasp.

“This Jewification process must be resented by any reasonable person, and it must be done by reasoned principles, not by animosity, or even hatred toward other human beings.
May I interject and include a Christian principle here? Christ told His disciples to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Those two elements go together.
In other words, we should recognize who the enemy is and be aware of his cunning devices. But we should overcome him “through meekness and patience,” not through hatred, envy, bitterness, and persecution. These are some of the essences of the gospel when it comes to dealing with enemies.”

“…….In the 21st century the two hundred year-old propaganda that the American people control their government has been completely shattered. Both the Bush and Obama regimes have made it unmistakenly clear that the American people don’t even influence, much less control, the government. As far as Washington is concerned, the people are nothing but chaff in the wind.
Polls demonstrate that 65% of the US population opposes US intervention in Syria. Despite this clear indication of the people’s will, the Obama regime is ramping up a propaganda case for more arming of Washington’s mercenaries sent to overthrow the secular Syrian government and for a “no-fly zone” over Syria, which, if Libya is the example, means US or NATO aircraft attacking the Syrian army on the ground, thus serving as the air force of Washington’s imported mercenaries, euphemistically called “the Syrian rebels.”
“……Washington’s double-speak is now obvious to the world. Not only Assad, but also the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and every US puppet state which includes all of NATO and Japan, are fully aware that Washington is again lying through its teeth. The Russians, Chinese, and Iranians are trying to avoid confrontation with Washington, as war with the modern nuclear weapons would destroy all life on planet earth. What is striking is that despite 24/7 brainwashing by the presstitutes, a large majority of the American population opposes obama’s war on Syria.
This is good news. It means more Americans are developing the ability to think independently of the lies Washington feeds to them……………
“………..Russia and China, having learned their lesson, are protesting Washington’s assault on Syria that Washington pretends is a “civil war.” If Syria falls, Russia and China know that Iran is next.
Iran is Russia’s underbelly, and for China Iran is 20% of its energy imports. Both Russian and Chinese governments know that after Iran falls, they are next. There is no other explanation for Washington surrounding Russia with missile bases and surrounding China with naval and air bases.
Both Russia and China are now preparing for the war that they see as inevitable. Washington’s crazed, demented drive for world hegemony is bringing unsuspecting Americans up against two countries with hydrogen bombs whose combined population is five times the US population. In such a conflict everyone dies.
Considering the utterly insane government ruling in Washington, if human life exists in 2020, it will be a miracle. All the worry about future Medicare and Social Security deficits is meaningless. There will be no one here to collect the benefits.”

http://williambowles.info/2013/06/18/russian-advanced-weapons-for-syria-unrevealed-secrets-of-vladimir-putins-recent-visit-to-london/
“————A British intelligence report stated that Putin went to London bringing his own Russian cooked food and did not consume anything from Britain including water as he even brought his own water with him reportedly because he had concerns of being poisoned.
The British intelligence site stated that Putin threatened to send other secret Russian made weapons to Syria which would tip the balance of power even further in favour of Syria and re-iterated that these weapons will not be used against Israel on condition that Israel will not participate in the war within Syria and neighbouring countries. {Lebanon, Jordan]
Reportedly, the British PM’s response was very weak in relation to Putin’s threats.
Putin’s response came just over 24 hours after Obama’s statement on Saturday that he was going to arm the Syrian resistance.
Putin clearly stated that the Middle East is going to witness a significant change. Syria will be armed with weapons that have never been seen before [in the Middle East] including computer guided smart missiles that never miss their target.
He also added that Russia will supply Syria with Skean 5 ground -to-sea missiles that are capable of hitting and sinking any target up to 250 km off the Syrian coast”.

I believe that Jeremiah chapters 50 & 51 are relevant to present times.

NSA Prism is motivated in part by fears that environmentally-linked disasters could spur anti-government activism
US domestic surveillance has targeted anti-fracking activists across the country.
Top secret US National Security Agency (NSA) documents disclosed by the Guardian have shocked the world with revelations of a comprehensive US-based surveillance system with direct access to Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants. New Zealand court records suggest that data harvested by the NSA’s Prism system has been fed into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance whose members also include the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
But why have Western security agencies developed such an unprecedented capacity to spy on their own domestic populations? Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis – or all three.
READ ON —-

The London Jewish World of March 15, 1923 declared: “Fundamentally, Judaism is anti-Christian.” Rabbi Martin Siegel: “I am devoting my lecture in this seminar to a discussion of the possibility that we are now entering a Jewish century, a time when the spirit of the community, the non-idealogical blend of the emotional and rational and the resistance to categories and forms will emerge through the forces of anti-nationalism to provide us with a new kind of society. I call this process the Judaization of Christianity because Christianity will be the vehicle through which this society becomes Jewish” (New York Magazine, January 18, 1972, p. 32).

——–

FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECIES 1923 “[The “God” who promised to give “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” to his worshippers we know. He is the God of Judas,of Herod and of Cain. Let us now see how he has carried out his promise……….]”

—==

Mark 14-17, “And the disciples forgot to take loaves except for one they had in the boat. And admonishing them [Jesus] said; Observe, Perceive! Cast aside the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned with one another saying That we do not have loaves. And knowing , Jesus says to them, Why do you reason because you do not yet have loaves? Do you not perceive or realise yet? Have you hardened your heart? You have eyes and do not see? And having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember the five loaves I broke to the five thousand? And how many handbaskets of fragments you took? They said to him, twelve. Also the seven to the four thousand, how many filled baskets of the fragments did you take? And they said seven. And He said to them, How do you not understand?

NEW YORK, Jan 20 2004 (IPS) – The Bush administration is pushing to ratify an international convention that civil libertarians say would pose serious threats to privacy rights at home and abroad.

After delaying for about two years, U.S. President George W. Bush recently asked the U.S. Senate to ratify the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, a global agreement apparently created to help police worldwide cooperate to fight Internet crimes.

“It’s the only international treaty to address the problems of computer-related crime and electronic evidence gathering,” Bush said in his November letter asking the Senate to confirm U.S. adherence to the treaty.

“It promises to be an effective tool in the global effort to combat computer-related crime,” added the president.

But independent legal experts and right activists on both sides of the Atlantic are sceptical about such claims.

“This is a bad treaty that not only threatens core liberties, but will obligate the United States to use extraordinary powers to do the dirty work of other nations,” says Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the oldest civil rights group in the country.

“We are opposed to this treaty,” says Cedric Laurent, a senior policy fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC), a public interest research group based in Washington, DC that specialises in issues of democracy and technology.

The treaty criminalizes acts such as hacking and the production, sale or distribution of hacking tools, and expands criminal liability for intellectual property violations that nations must have on their books as crimes.

So far, only four countries – Albania, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia – have ratified the treaty since it opened for signatures in 2001.

Thirty-two countries besides the United States have signed the convention; it must be ratified by five nations before it enters into force.

The agreement also makes it mandatory for each participating nation to grant new powers of search and seizure to its law enforcement authorities, including the power to force an Internet service provider (ISP) to preserve a customer’s usage records and to monitor his or her online activities as they occur.

If approved by the Senate, experts say, U.S. police would be required to cooperate in “mutual assistance requests” from police in other nations “to the widest extent possible”.

“Do we really want professional American law enforcement personnel conducting surveillance on people who haven’t broken any U.S. law in order to help enforce the ‘law’ of some Party apparatchik in China?” he added in a statement.

Right groups are also worried about the possible use of new surveillance devices like Carnivore, the “Internet-tapping” system used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to intercept communications.

Unlike wiretaps, which are set up by a telephone company on behalf of authorities, Carnivore allows law enforcement agents direct access to entire ISP networks, far beyond the scope of powers those agents now have.

When the U.S. Congress passed the infamous Patriot Act to boost law-enforcement in response to the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it authorised the use of Carnivore for collecting information on Internet addresses and traffic. But it stopped short of permitting the system to be used to eavesdrop on actual content.

“The Patriot Act has given more powers to the law enforcement agencies. That is right,” says Laurent in an interview. “But the ratification of this convention would give even more powers to the authorities.”

“Unfortunately, the history of the FBI and other government agencies on respecting privacy is not good,” says Steinhardt in an interview, explaining that is why, “Carnivore has been opposed by organisations from across the political spectrum”.

The ACLU and other critics of the treaty also argue that it provides too little protection for political activities. They point out that the text fails to define “political offences”, a fault they call “a huge omission”, since an act considered political in the United States might be a criminal matter in another country.

For example, the treaty section on real-time monitoring of Internet activity does not include an exemption to the mutual assistance requirement for “political” offences, meaning, the experts say, the FBI could be asked to order an ISP like AOL to spy on a political dissenter in Ukraine or a union organiser in Latin America.

Steinhardt wonders why Bush decided to request ratification now. “We are trying to understand why the U.S. government did not do anything two years ago,” he says. “They had abandoned this (treaty). I think it’s all related to 9/11. But it’s a mystery to us.”

In his letter to the Senate, Bush wrote, “the treaty would help deny ‘safe havens’ to criminals, including terrorists, who can cause damage to U.S. interests abroad using computer systems”.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/06/18/nsa-behind-the-edward-snowden-smoke-screen/
The real reason for massive NSA surveillance
The DHS has acquired two billion rounds of .40 caliber hollow-point ammunition that is not even permissible for use in combat under the Hague Convention of 1899. It has also obtained 2,700 light tanks and 7,000 assault rifles. It has made special arrangements with funeral homes and mortuaries in case there should be an excess of casualties beyond the capacities of hospitals to handle.
The real purpose of this massive surveillance is that all that stands behind the DHS and the imposition of a fascistic military/police state is 100,000,000 armed Americans. This sweeping and detailed spy-op is intended to identify which of those would be willing to stand up and place their lives in jeopardy for the sake of freedom and democracy. At last count, the number was 8,000,000. This is serious stuff and the DHS isn’t taking any chances.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/06/18/doomsday-weapons-to-syria-putin/
Jeremiah Ch.50.
29 Call together the archers [ Ishmaelites, Genesis 21:20 ] against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord.
31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
33 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
Jeremiah Ch 51:12
“…..Prepare the ambushes” [Strongs 693, Ambush = Arab = to lurk or lie in wait ]

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2010/09/02/us-gets-ready-to-knock-the-world-offline.html
US gets ready to knock the world offline
“After October 1 thousands of US military hackers and spies will get down to their cyber war activities.
The declarations for taking cyber defense measures can be heard more and more often in the US. US analysts state that information and communication networks, on which the national infrastructure depends on, are becoming vulnerable for cyber criminals.
Cyberspace defense issue is urgent not only for the US. “The statistics revealed that cybercriminals have upped the ante and are becoming more sophisticated and creative, distributing more aggressive forms of malware” -Defence IQ website states.
“Our statistics show that Trojans and rogueware (‘fake’ antivirus programs) amounted to almost 85 per cent of all malware activity in 2009. 2009 was also the year of Conficker, though this belies the fact that worms ranked at just 3.42 per cent of last year’s malware creation”, the magazine read………………
……………….When commenting this article analysts point out that “The capabilities being sought would allow U.S. cyber-warriors to “deceive, deny, disrupt, degrade and destroy” information and computers around the globe”. (5)
………………………..Considering all this what may we expect? It is quite likely that we may expect spying by means of tabs and backdoors in software sold by well-known companies such as Microsoft, as well as an informational blockade, limiting access to alternative sources of information. Thus from October 1, all the achievements of the informational age can be challenged”.

………………………..Considering all this what may we expect? It is quite likely that we may expect spying by means of tabs and backdoors in software sold by well-known companies such as Microsoft, as well as an informational blockade, limiting access to alternative sources of information. Thus from October 1, all the achievements of the informational age can be challenged”.

I haven’t been able to download this site recently.

Just uninstalled some Zone Alarm programmes and my computer is back to normal.

THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC KEPT IGNORANThttp://mathaba.net/news/?x=633134
“American intelligence whistle-blower and now world-wide hero for privacy and freedom, Edward Snowden, may expose top secret Australian spying operations and embarrass Australia’s relations with neighbouring Asian countries, Australian “intelligence officials” fear.

Former Labor War Minister John Faulkner has confirmed that the heads of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and Australia’s signals intelligence agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, David Irvine and Ian McKenzie, have briefed the federal parliament’s intelligence committee on the US PRISM internet surveillance program.

They have known about it for years and been actively involved in it, keeping the Australian public ignorant about the true extent of the spying and collection of data by the U.S. “National Security Agency”.

The Australian Government would not comment yesterday on whether Mr Snowden’s exposés of top secret US and British intelligence and surveillance programs have been the subject of diplomatic exchanges between Canberra and Washington. Australia’s Zionist Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s office would not say whether he has had any exchanges with US Zionist Secretary of State John Kerry on the subject.

However Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’s office has confirmed that a high level interagency taskforce is monitoring events and coordinating the government’s response.

“Agencies have been meeting formally on this important issue and have been coordinated in their consideration of the matter and their briefing of Ministers,” a spokesperson for Mr Dreyfus said.

Australian Defence intelligence officials speaking on condition of anonymity have acknowledged there had been “intense exchanges” on Mr Snowden’s disclosures through liaison channels between the US National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency and Australia’s intelligence agencies which are along with those of Britain, part and parcel of the same so-called “intelligence community”.

Australian officials said it was still unclear precisely what information Mr Snowden may have taken from the National Security Agency and his former employer, defence and intelligence consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton but that there was little doubt that the intelligence contractor had “very wide access, including access to much detail of communications intelligence cooperation between the US and Australia.”

Snowden has revealed that as a contractor to the NSA, the 29 year old had access to almost all communications made by any citizen in the world, during a video interview, and released documents to back up this claim. He is currently in fear of his life as the U.S. regime has threatened him, so he is now seeking asylum abroad. Currently he is in Europe having flown there from Hong Kong on advice he received.

“Disclosure of highly sensitive collection operations and methodology will damage Australia’s intelligence capabilities [read: spying for the United States]. It already has done so. But there’s also risk of serious complications in our relations with our neighbours,” one official said.

“The US may be able to brush aside some of the diplomatic fallout from the Snowden leak, but that may not be the case for Australia. China, Malaysia, other countries may respond to us in ways that they would not to Washington.”

Officials said that the Australian Government’s response to any new disclosures was being developed through the National Security Adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Dr Margot McCarthy, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Defence Signals Directorate and ASIO.

The Prime Minister’s department previously convened a whole of government task force to deal with the consequences of WikiLeaks’ release in late 2010 of thousands of US diplomatic cables leaked by US Army private Bradley Manning who has been tortured for months in a U.S. isolation cell for revealing the extent of the human rights abuses by U.S. military in Iraq.

Australian defence intelligence officials said that Mr Snowden’s disclosures of US and allied signals intelligence programs “will have a much greater and more lasting impact than the Manning leaks.”

On Sunday the Chair of the US Senate intelligence committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a jewish extremist and arch Zionist accused Mr Snowden of treason and said that his disclosures through The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers had caused “irreversible and significant damage to our country and to our allies.”

In the company of a WikiLeaks staffer Mr Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday. The US Government has charged him with espionage and has revoked his passport. He has sought political asylum from the Government of Ecuador.

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange said yesterday “We are aware of where Snowden is, he is safe and his spirits are high. We cannot reveal what country he is in at this time.”

Senator Faulkner told the Australian Senate on Monday that Mr Snowden’s revelations “will heighten anxiety in this country about data retention.”

Speaking on the tabling of the parliament’s intelligence committee’s report on telecommunications and internet data retention, the former Australian Defence Minister said it was essential that “any legislation to establish a mandatory data retention scheme in Australia contains the strongest safeguards to protect the privacy of our citizens.”

“Our challenge will be to achieve the right balance between the safety and security of our citizens, and their personal rights and freedoms, including the right to privacy, if a proposal for a mandatory data retention scheme goes forward.

He implied that Australian citizens should continue to trust their government agencies to “do the right thing” even after it has yet again become apparent that they serve foreign interests, and not the interests of Australians”.

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=633132
Think about this the next time someone tries to tell you they have nothing to hide — James Corbett explains why no one should allow government to spy on them if they are innocent

corbettreport.com
June 19, 2013
“If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.”
We’ve all heard this argument a million times when talking to people about the latest revelations of government snooping or the latest roll-out of creepy Orwellian technology. The implication is that the only people who complain about having their privacy violated are criminals who deserve to have their privacy violated. It is a simple phrase, learned by rote, that is meant to bring the conversation to a close.
We all know that this is argument is fundamentally flawed, but sometimes it is difficult to argue the point with someone who insists that they are fine with seemingly any level of government intrusion in their personal lives. Recently, Dan Dicks of PressForTruth.ca, a Canadian alternative media outlet, demonstrated in a simple, fun way, the limits of people’s willingness to abide by the maxim that they have nothing to fear because they have nothing to hide. Setting up his camera on a busy thoroughfare, he asked a number of passersby a series of increasingly invasive questions. “What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “How old are you?” “Who was the last person you phoned?” “What was the last thing you Googled?” “What’s your mother’s maiden name?” “What’s your bank account number?” Somewhere in the line of questioning, the person answering would inevitably claim that the question was too personal and would decline to answer. They had reached the limit of what they were willing to reveal about themselves to a total stranger.
So why are people (sometimes the very same people who argue that they have nothing to hide) reluctant to give away all of their personal information to a random person on the street? Obviously because they do not know that person or his intentions. He could be a criminal attempting to steal the information so he can access their bank account or steal their identity. Even if he wasn’t a criminal, who’s to say where the information would end up, and whether it may eventually end up in the hands of some nefarious criminal?
For some reason, people believe that allowing the government to spy on all of their electronic communications is somehow different. These aren’t random criminals on the street, after all, but government agencies. The information is not being accessed randomly, it is being used for official investigations into terrorism or wrongdoing. Our personal data, even our bank account numbers and personal histories, are surely safe with these government agencies and their trusted employees.
But think for a moment about the recent NSA spying scandal and what it has taught us. As much as Edward Snowden’s critics attempt to demonize him by pointing out that he is a high school dropout, an Army quitter, a lowly security guard who somehow or other flubbed his way into a job where he gained access to this top secret information, what these critics don’t realize is that they are making the very point for why we should not be happy entrusting our most personal information to a bunch of faceless government agencies. Because the faceless government agencies aren’t really faceless at all; they are populated by the very same types of potential criminals and nogoodniks that we would avoid sharing our personal information with on the street. Think about the extraordinary amount of data that someone like Snowden—a lowly employee of a subcontractor of the NSA—can access about you personally at any time he desires. As he himself stated: “I sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, to your accountant, to a federal judge to even the President if I had a personal email.”
You have something to fear about giving up private data to faceless individuals precisely because you have no idea how these people are going to use that information, or whether it will ever be misused. And when you realize that with the construction of the NSA’s new 1.5 million square foot data center in Utah the US government now has the ability to essentially store all of this data forever, you are entrusting your personal information not just to one potential criminal on the street, but to every single federal employee who ever has access to that data, and to anyone who might gain access to that data illegally. The government is essentially creating a trough of information that would be almost literally invaluable to any potential criminal or group of criminals, and making every effort to ensure that that trough is never emptied. How can anyone possibly be OK with this?
Think about this the next time someone tries to tell you they have nothing to hide.

IN AN ELECTED DICTATORSHIP THE VOTERS ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE STATE
Reports of Washington’s anger directed at surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate a basic truth about power. Noam Chomsky has expressed it as the underlying problem for genuine democracy, even in so-called ‘free’ societies:
‘Remember, any state, any state, has a primary enemy: its own population.’ (Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power, edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel, The New Press, 2002, p. 70.)
Anyone who steps out of line, especially if they defy authority’s attempts to apprehend them, risks severe punishment. All the more so because it is important to publicly discipline miscreants, lest the threat of a ‘bad’ example become a contagion sweeping through society.
Snowden was denounced by Dick Cheney, the warmongering former US vice-president, as a ‘traitor‘ and a possible spy for China. Senator Dianne Feinsten, chair of the US Senate intelligence committee, told reporters that Snowden had committed an ‘act of treason’. There was ‘undisguised fury’ amongst many US politicians at Snowden’s slipping away from Hong Kong and arriving at Moscow airport where he continued to evade detection. General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, complained that Snowden ‘is clearly an individual who’s betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him. This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent.’
Given the source of such accusations – largely senior officials in the current and previous US administrations – rational observers will be unimpressed. As Norman Solomon correctly points out:
‘The state of surveillance and perpetual war are one and the same. The U.S. government’s rationale for pervasive snooping is the “war on terror,” the warfare state under whatever name.’

http://williambowles.info/2013/07/02/snowdens-cry-for-help-is-a-cry-for-america-by-pam-martens/
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“……..In a statement released to civil rights advocates, PCJF said: “Most people are not aware that silently, but constantly, the government is now watching, recording your everyday travels and storing years of your activities in massive data warehouses that can be quickly ‘mined’ to find out when and where you have been, whom you’ve visited, meetings you’ve attended, and activities you’ve taken part in. This is all done by using an elaborate network of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras, also known as tag readers…You’re being tracked routinely, without probable cause, without a warrant and without even a suspicion that you have committed a crime.”
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Chang’s earlier warning about “Silencing Political Dissent,” can now be upgraded to brutally crushing political dissent. Nothing better exemplifies the morphing of a corrupted corporate agenda with an out of control homeland security apparatus than the actions taken on November 15, 2011 during the raid, eviction and destruction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park……

Statement in solidarity with Evo Morales and in condemnation of imperialism
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The Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity express their indignation at the criminal attack perpetrated in the afternoon of Tuesday July 3 against Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma, by the government of the United States and with the clear complicity of various European states.
.http://boliviarising.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-020813.html
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THE ROVING EYE
Our man in Moscow
By Pepe Escobar
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So what is the “extremely disappointed” Obama administration, the Orwellian/Panopticon complex and the discredited US Congress to do? Send a Navy Seal Team 6 to snatch him or to target assassinate him – turning Moscow into Abbottabad 2.0? Drone him? Poison his borscht? Shower his new house with depleted uranium? Install a no-fly zone over Russia?
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Edward Snowden, under his new legal status in Russia, simply cannot be handed over to Bradley Manning’s lynch mob. Legally, Washington is now as powerless as a tribal Pashtun girl facing an incoming Hellfire missile. A President of the United States (POTUS) so proud of his constitutional law pedigree – recent serial trampling of the US constitution notwithstanding, not to mention international law – seems not to have understood the message…………….”

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UN UDHR – Article 19

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."